www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

I assume you mean "butterflies"?

Of course, I like them all, but I'd go for the following (not in any particular order!) for the reasons given:

Brown Hairstreak
- a welcome sight at the end of the season

Large Blue
- amazing lifecycle

Marbled White
- always nice to see in early July

Orange-Tip
- a sign of spring and the year to come

Peacock
- Just beautiful

Purple Emperor
- for its behaviour, colour and elusiveness

Swallowtail
- for being so exotic

White Admiral
- for its gliding flight - quite distinctive!

Wood White
- for its daintiness

Cheers,

- Pete

I think the purple emperor is spectacular and I'm going to make every effort to see and photograph one next year.
Of the common butterflies, I reckon the red admiral takes some beating.

I don't think I've seen enough to have a real favourite, but I allways have an eye out for Swollowtails

Martin.

The current high numbers of painted lady is a real treat for me and must be one of my favourites. The underside is as spectacular as the upper. And marbled white for the same reason. I haven't seen many of the rarer species so can't comment on them.

Small Copper - What a fantastic little butterfly

Definately Red admirals and Commas...
I can never get enough of them...
Also partial to the skippers and common blue..

I like the small ones, the ones in the "blue" family.

I do really like the Painted Lady though, and the Small Tortoiseshell has always been one of my favourites.

I read somewhere that small tortoiseshells have been down in number for the last few years. There are one or two around the buddleia bushes in Harrogate, but very few compared to, say, 5 or 6 years ago. Let's hope it's a cyclical thing and not the start of a long term decline.

Small tortoiseshells are scarce in my area in the west country this year too, although I seem to remember quite good numbers two years ago. Conversely, meadow brown are up in numbers around here compared to last year when they were very thin on the ground. And this year is a bumper year for gatekeeper. I've never seen so many.

I actually prefer moths to butterflies, but then I've always been a bit odd!
On the other subject, I've only seen one Small Tortoisehell in London this year.

Brian

hi all
there are too many to choose from but probably the Adonis Blue just because of the striking colours.Another is the Duke of Burgundy only because it took me such a long time to find one and photograph it !!!
regards
mark

Well since finding around 300 small tortoiseshell larva feasting upon the nettles in my overgrown garden I have taken a fond liking to these

http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/phpBB2/v ... .php?t=597

other than that species I like the large/small whites that frequent our garden regulary

Thanks to Pete Eeles for his input

We have made new friends......its so exciting. You can only come if you dress up as a butterfly or a moth!